The Hazards of Graveyard Work

[My Good Babushka]

Experienced gravediggers, who had to open used coffins to place fresh corpses in them, drilled holes into the coffins and inserted tubes to draw off the gas. The gas was burned off to make the coffin safe to handle. “to inhale this gas, undiluted, is instant death” noted one inquiry into the dangers of graveyard work.

(pictured: Hanwell Cemetery, City of Westminster, London.)